If you are not familiar with the two main menus for the LLIR website, read the introduction to menus. This page explains how to change the structure and content of these two menus. To change the appearance (placement in a header, text styles, colours and the like), modify the header in which the menu appears. See the introduction to headers, and How to Modify a Header.

You can jump directly to the How To Instructions below.

Before You Begin

Make sure you select the right menu to work on. The first items in the Public Menu and Member Menu are so similar that opening the wrong one is an easy mistake.

  1. From the Dashboard, select first Appearance and then Menus. (The category name Appearance is misleading for menus.)
  2. The Menus panel opens to the Edit Menus tab similar to the image below, and shows the last menu that was edited.
  3. Use the dropdown to the right of Select a menu to edit to choose either Public Menu or Member Menu and click Select.
  4. Make sure the name of the menu you want to work on appears under the heading Menu structure.
The Menu Panel of the WordPress dashboard
The words in brackets in the dropdown are the location of this menu in the header.

Notes about Building Menus

Here are some initial concepts to bear in mind:

  • A menuitem is a link to a webpage. The page must exist before you create the menuitem.
    You cannot change a menuitem to link to a different page (link to a different slug) after the menuitem is created.
  • You can give a menuitem a label that is different from the title of the page it links to.
    Examples: You can adjust the label for context or make it shorter than a long page title.
  • A page may appear on both menus and more than once on each menu.
  • More than one menuitem can link to the same page.
Warnings

For the changes you make in the Menus panel take effect, you must click the Save Menu button on the panel of the screen shown above.

Deleting a webpage to which a menuitem links, corrupts the menu. The symptom is that the menu display is distorted starting at the position where a menuitem with a broken link appears. To repair the menu, delete the broken menuitem and optionally replace it.

How To Modify a Menu

Expand one of the tasks below to read detailed instructions. You can make several changes to the same menu before you save and publish. The last two items in each of the set of instructions below are Save and Test. You can save time by skipping those steps until you complete a batch of updates.

To test a modified menu open the website as a user — not from the dashboard. Test on both a large screen and a mobile device.

First, make sure the page exists and you know its title. Then:

  1. Select the menu you want to modify as described in Before you Begin.
  2. If the title of the page you want does not appear in the list under Add Menu Items on the left, click View All under Pages. Check the box beside the page title to select that page.
  3. Below the list of pages, click Add to Menu. The new menuitem appears at the bottom of the Menu Structure panel.
  4. Drag the new menuitem to its desired position: directly after the menuitem you want it to follow.
    If the new item is the first in a (drop down) submenu, place it below the upper-level menuitem and indent it.
  5. Click the down arrow to right of Page to open the settings for the new menuitem.
  6. By default, the label on menuitem is the same as title of the page. To modify the label, enter other text into the Navigation Label box. Note that the page title is displayed beside the word Original: and is a link that opens the page.
  7. When you are finished, click the  Save Menu button on the bottom of the screen.
  8. Test.

Removing a menuitem from a menu does not delete the corresponding page from the website.

  1. Select the menu you want to modify as described in Before you Begin.
  2. Locate the menuitem you want to delete in the Menu Structure panel.
  3. Click the down arrow to right of Page to open the settings for this menuitem.
  4. Click Remove at the bottom of the page settings panel.
  5. When you are finished, click the  Save Menu button on the bottom of the screen.
  6. Test.

Changing the label on a menuitem has no impact on the page to which the menuitem links.

  1. Select the menu you want to modify as described in Before you Begin.
  2. Locate the menuitem you want to change in the Menu Structure panel.
  3. Click the down arrow to right of Page to open the settings for this menuitem.
  4. Type the desired label into the Navigation Label box.
    Note that the page title is still displayed beside the word Original: and is a link that opens the page.
  5. When you are finished, click the  Save Menu button on the bottom of the screen.
  6. Test.

You can reorganize a menu by moving one or more of its menuitems into new positions.

  1. Select the menu you want to modify as described in Before you Begin.
  2. Click on one menuitem and drag it into its new position: directly after the menuitem you want it to follow.
    To promote a menuitem to a higher menu (perhaps from a dropdown submenu to the top-level menu) reduce the indent.
    To demote it, perhaps creating a new submenu, increase the indent.
  3. When you are finished, click the  Save Menu button on the bottom of the screen.
  4. Test.

You can suppress display of a menuitem without modifying the menu and make it appear again when conditions change. For example, one approach to including the the annual registration form on the Member Menu is to hide the page that contains a link to the form and show it only when Registration is open.

  1. Select the menu you want to modify as described in Before you Begin.
  2. Locate the menuitem you want to show/hide in the Menu Structure panel.
  3. Click the down arrow to right of Page to open the settings for this menuitem. Then click the box Menu Item Settings.
    The Menu Item Settings panel opens.
  4. To hide the menuitem from the user, move the switch beside Hide Test Label to the right. (The slider background becomes blue).
    To restore the menuitem, move the switch beside Hide Text Label to the left.
  5. Click the Save and Close button to close the panel.
  6. When you are finished, click the  Save Menu button on the bottom of the screen.
  7. Test.

To create a submenu by adding a new page to the menu, follow the instruction’s for adding a page to an existing menu. When the new page is positioned, make sure it is indented more then the menuitem above it.
To move an existing item into a new submenu, follow the instructions for moving a menuitem within a menu. When the new page is positioned, make sure it is indented more then the menuitem above it.

The two top level menus of the LLIR website, Public Menu and Member Menu, are fundamental to the organization of the website. For an explanation, refer to the Menus section page Implemenation Strategy. Do not delete either of menus or create addition menus unless you are undertaking a major redesign of of the website.

How Menus Can Change During LLIR Processes

During the LLIR processes for annual registration and waitlist applications, whether menuitems that link to related pages and forms depends appear in the appropriate menu depends on the current status of the process. The Registrar triggers these processes using FileMaker Pro and custom code written by our hired programmer changes the website.

For posterity, these notes record below two techniques that were implemented successfully in the past. Both have the advantage of being able to open and close the waitlist and registration with no dependence on PHP code. They show how menus can be modified without involving the hired programmer but instead depend upon involvement of and communication between the Webmaster and Registrar. Neither technique is used at the time of this writing; the registrar has sole and immediate control over the opening and closing registration and the waitlist.

Requirement:
Users can open the registration form and Registration Guide only while registration is open.

Solution:
The Member Menu is built with all pages included. When registration opens and closes, the Webmaster manually displays and then hides the menuitems Registration Guide, Registration and Register for Courses from the Registration drop-down menu.
See Hiding and redisplaying a menuitem above.

Requirement:
The link to the form that non-members submit to join the waitlist is available only while the waitlist is open for new applications.

Solution:
The Public Menu is built with all pages included.The Waitlist Process begins with some explanatory text that always appears. The bottom half of the page is added by a conditional element and includes a button that opens waitlist application form.
See the page How to Open and Close the Waitlist.